1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motor unit, and more specifically to a motor unit for use in a disk drive apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Disk drive apparatuses, such as hard disk drives, typically have spindle motors (hereinafter referred to simply as “motors”) arranged to rotate disks installed therein. For example, in a disk drive apparatus disclosed in JP-A 7-334967, a bracket of a motor is fixed to a base of the disk drive apparatus through screws or the like. An inner bottom surface of the base includes a guide groove defined therein. The guide groove is arranged to extend from a collar portion of the bracket to a connector arranged in a side portion of the disk drive apparatus. A flexible printed circuit (FPC) board arranged to connect coil wires of a stator of the motor to the connector is attached to the guide groove.
JP-A 2006-40423 discloses a technique of filling an interior of a disk drive with a low-density gas, such as helium or hydrogen, to reduce vibrations of a disk and a head and to thereby enable highly precise recording of data.
As is described in JP-A 2006-40423, when the interior of the disk drive is filled with a gas that tends to diffuse more easily than air, such as a helium gas, it is necessary to ensure sufficient airtightness of a base of the disk drive.
Regarding the disk drive disclosed in JP-A 7-334967, in the case where lead wires, i.e., portions of the coil wires, are connected to the FPC board in the vicinity of the motor, it is necessary to prevent a point of connection between each lead wire and the FPC board from coming into contact with a rotating portion of the motor. Moreover, in the case where a point of connection between the lead wire and the FPC board includes solder and is located right under the stator, it is necessary to space the connection point downwardly away from the stator. This arrangement leads to a reduction in the wall thickness of a housing of the disk drive.
When the lead wires are connected to the FPC board at positions away from the motor, the lead wires are arranged under a disk, a head, or the rotating portion of the motor, and thus it is therefore necessary to prevent the lead wires from coming into contact with the disk, the head, or the rotating portion. The same holds true with the case where the lead wires are directly connected to the connector.